Saturday, August 31, 2013

Commenting on yesterday's post, Joan Elizabeth wrote, "I'm wondering though, doesn't your boss have an inkling as to your gender variation life style, she must by now with all the stories you've mentioned. I'm surprise the conversation with her hasn't come up. Are you on a close personal level with her? or just a boss worker relationship."

Funny that Joan Elizabeth should ask.

During a break in a meeting at our Pennsylvania office this week, my boss brought up my 2012 appearance at work en femme on Halloween in a joking manner. There was a lot of joking and kidding going on throughout that day-long meeting and my Halloween costume was mentioned in a light manner with no ill will intended. (Knowing my boss, I am 99% sure that that was the case.)

I was surprised by her mentioning it and I cannot even recall the context of the mention. I had no comeback, but wish I had said something like, "Wait 'til you see what I wear next Halloween."

On the way back to Connecticut yesterday, I told my boss about some office gossip that I had heard while in Pennsylvania and that precipitated a long conversation about some recent false gossip that my boss had to squelch.

I asked if she had heard any gossip about me being trans and that if she had, it was true.

She said that she had not heard any gossip about me, that she was perfectly fine with it and that I could dress any way I wanted to at work.

Friday, August 30, 2013

I traveled with my boss on this business trip to our Pennsylvania facility; she drove her car, so as a result, my out en femme plans were limited to places within walking distance. I had two choices: dine en femme in the restaurant next door to my hotel or dine en femme in my hotel's restaurant.

My first choice was the restaurant next door because I had dined there Monday in boy mode and the food and ambience were excellent. My hotel's restaurant was a distant second choice because it was a serve yourself set-up and had next to no ambience.

It began raining around 7 AM Wednesday morning and according to the forecast, it was going to rain throughout the day and into the evening. I had no umbrella and my plans to walk to the restaurant next door did not look promising.

Mid-morning, I encountered a co-worker who I did not expect to see at our Pennsylvania facility. I mentioned him here before --- he is gay and I assumed he knew I was trans-something. He was staying in my hotel, so I asked him if he didn't mind having some company when he went out to eat after work. He was glad to have the company, so then I dropped my bombshell.

"You know I'm trans, so I hope you don't mind if I go to dinner in girl mode."

He said he did not mind at all, but then he added that he had no idea that I was trans despite my three Halloween en femme appearances at work!

Surprise!

All was well until mid-afternoon when my boss informed me that she had scheduled a meeting at 5 PM that I had to attend.

Nuts!

I informed my dinner date that I probably would be late and if it was too late, I would dine in boy mode.

The meeting ended at 6:15 PM. It was 6:40 PM when we returned to our hotel. It would take me about 90 minutes to switch from boy mode to girl mode, which translates to 8:10 PM more or less.

I did not want to make my friend wait that long, so I abandoned my plans to dine en femme and we went to dinner with me in boy mode.

Despite being in boy mode, it still gave me a chance to do outreach. My friend knew more about trans than the average civilian, but I still educated him about some things he did not know and now I have another ally in the battle of the genders.

After dinner, I had nothing much to do, so I decided to see how fast I could switch from boy mode to girl mode. I amazed myself and made the transition in 55 minutes!

I took some photos modeling the three dresses I packed for the trip, then I took the elevator to the lobby, but it was late and the lobby was deserted. So I returned to my room, removed my makeup and clothes, slipped into my nightgown and went to bed.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

I arrived safe and sound at my hotel mid-afternoon Monday. I will attend business conferences Tuesday and Wednesday and a business dinner Tuesday evening.
I will be on my own Wednesday evening and plan to go out en femme, so please stay tuned.

Monday, August 26, 2013

I went to the casino Saturday night in boy mode. My wife and sister had free tickets to see Styx and REO Speedwagon. I planned to play slots while they attended the concert.

My wife and sister had an excellent time at the concert and I had an excellent time playing slots. In fact, it was the most productive time I ever had playing slots.

I also had an excellent time girl-watching. Probably like many of you, I girl-watch to get inspired for when I am girl-dressed.

Saturday night at the casino there were lots of ladies dressed to kill. There were larger groups of young ladies involved in wedding shower or bridesmaids outings, there were smaller groups of ladies having a girls' night out and finally, there were single ladies accompanied by males out for a Saturday night date.

High heels, high hemlines, and a high fashion presentations were the norm. I wanted to go home and return dressed to kill myself!

Instead, I went home and packed for my business trip this week. My packing included two new dresses and everything else I need to go out en femme after work during my trip.

Funny how all my boy stuff takes up about one-quarter of the space in my suitcase, whereas my girl stuff fills the rest of the space and is crying out for even more space!

Actors Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey femulating
in the 1960 British film Carry On Constable.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Bradley Manning, sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified U.S. documents in U.S. history, said in a statement on Thursday she is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.

"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female," Manning, 25, said in the statement read on NBC News' "Today" show.

"Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible," Manning said. "I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun."

When my Dad saw me dressed en femme for the first time (for Halloween), he gave me some fatherly advice: watch out for boys who might want to have their way with me.

I had a good relationship with my Dad. He did his best to raise my sister and I. Maybe he did not know what to do with his feminine son, so he did not interfere and let me find myself. He let my sister find herself, too, so I guess he thought that was the best way to raise girls.

On the other hand, Mom was very hands-on raising her kids. While my sister was independent and frustrated some of my Mom's attempts to raise her a certain way, I was a Momma's boy tied to her apron strings and she was able to mold me into the daughter she always wanted.

That's why she never complained about me wearing her clothes when I was home alone or why she did not throw away my stash of female finery that I had hidden in my room. She knew I wanted to be a girl and I so regret not confiding with her about it.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Zip Tip

You may recall my do-it-yourself solution to zipping up dresses. I first mentioned my solution in February 2012 and revisited it in July 2012.

It is not a perfect solution. On two or three occasions, when pulling up a difficult zipper, the safety pin opened and stabbed me! Since then, I have looked for a better solution and I believe I found it.

I replaced the large safety pin on my zipper helper with a small snap hook (see photo) that was attached to a laser pointer that I use to entertain our cats. It is large enough to handle difficult zippers, but it is small enough to attach through the tiny holes proffered by the teardrop pull tabs used with some zippers. And the snap hook is spring-loaded so it will not open in mid-zip.

Heroines

Monika Kowalska is a Member of this blog and has a cool website that I happened upon: My Transgender Heroines, which features "1497 stories of famous and well-known and lesser-known transgender women and girls from around the world to show us how to live with dignity in accordance with their own psyche and that it is better to be hated for who you are, than loved for who she is not."

The website is in Polish, but Google translates it easily, so don't let the language barrier prevent you from visiting it.

Actors Alec Mapa, Robert Kaiser, Stephen Spinella, and Chris Loganfemulating in the film Connie and Carla, 2004.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

I read "Conservative Christianity and the transgender question" in The Washington Post‘s On Faith column on Friday and it made me sick. I wanted to go medieval on Russell Moore for his despicable column and I spent the weekend trying to come up with the right words to answer Moore's piece.

Monday, August 19, 2013

On Friday, I asked if anyone was familiar with the urban legend about a male model posing as a female in the Black Velvet whisky print advertisements that began appearing circa 1970.

I received a response from Brenda, who claimed that the male model posing as a female was in a Virginia Slims cigarette advertisement, not a Black Velvet whisky ad. She added that the model in question was a blond wearing a denim shirt.

I searched the Internet and found a lot of Virginia Slims ads, but none featuring a model in a denim shirt.